ASTON MARTIN RACING RAMPS UP VANTAGE GT3 TEST PROGRAMME

During the course of the test, the team conducted extended race simulation runs to ensure exceptional levels of reliability and durability, and also finalised settings for the traction control system and ABS – one of the standout features of the new Vantage GT3 compared to the outgoing DBRS9 – after working in close collaboration with Bosch engineers. The test also included detailed work on the required air restrictors for the GT3 category this year.

With five development cars due to be delivered to official partner teams in the next few weeks, the test also proved the ideal opportunity for their drivers to get valuable seat time aboard the new GT3 racer.

John Gaw, Managing Director of Aston Martin Racing, was delighted at the progress made: “It’s great to be at the extended endurance testing phase with our new Vantage GT3. We had terrific weather conditions throughout the duration of the test, which allowed us to get a really good idea of how competitive the car might be.

“We know the lap times that our closest rivals have set around Gaudix and we also had other Aston Martin Racing cars in attendance for further benchmarking. It was the best Vantage GT3 test that we’ve had to date and given the lap times achieved, we have every reason to believe it will be competitive from the outset.”

The Vantage GT3 shares its bonded aluminium body structure and its base 6.0-litre V12 engine with Aston Martin’s V12 Vantage road car. The first five Vantage GT3s will be seen in competitive action in various domestic GT championships in the hands of official partner teams, including Young Driver AMR in the ADAC GT Masters; Beechdean Motorsport in the British GT series; Triple A in Japanese Super GT; and with Xande Negrao in Brazilian GT. Further customer cars will be delivered to Aston Martin Racing partner teams as the season progresses ahead of an extensive customer build programme for the 2013 season.